Binder

ABSTRACT

A binder having a foldable cover with webs extending across the inside of the spine. Magazines or folded sheets are bound by clipping them at top and bottom to the web with U-shaped clips.

Unite States Patei [72] Inventor John R. Edmondls 79 Howell Ave" Camberwell, Australia [21] Appl. No. 833.304 [221 Filed July 3. 1969 [45] Patented Aug. 3, 1971 {32] Priority July 3. 11968 [33] Australia [31 1 40.104/68 4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

[52] 0.8. (31.... 281/46 [51] lat. 4C1 i B42d 1/06 [50] Field all Search 281/46,15. 21. 45.47. 48, SUMO/104.17.104.18

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 337,664 3/1886 Coffin 281/50 Morden 908.597 1/1909 402. 2 1.037.292 9/1912 Morden 402/21 1.042.626 10/1912 Watson 402/32 1.698.463 1/1929 Adams 402/23 FOREIGN PATENTS 533.682 12/1954 Belgium 281/46 495,007 6/1919 France 281/47 1.255.453 1/1961 France 281/46 259.835 2/1949 Switzerland 281/46 Primary E.\aminer- Lawrence Charles Assislan! Examiner-R. P. Dyer Attorney-Jacobi and Davidson ABSTRACT: A binder having a foldable cover with webs extending across the inside of the spine. Magazines or folded sheets are bound by clipping them at top and bottom to the web with U-shaped clips.

Patented Aug. 3, 1971 3,596,928

2 Shuts-Shut 1 IINVENTOR J'OHN 50mm: 05

ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 3, 1971 3,596,928

z Shoots-Shut, 2

INVENTOR JOHN RHEDMDNDS ATTORNEYS BINDER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION for spring steel wire rods which are insertable in holes and/or slots in the posts so as to extend therebetween. The rods are made of such length that they can only be inserted and removed by flexing. Folded sheets may be secured within the binder by opening the binder ans positioning the open sheet so that its fold is adjacent the spine and extends between the posts. A wire is then positioned between the posts and over the fold of the sheet, the sheet thus being held in position by the wire.

While such binders give satisfactory service they are comparatively expensive to manufacture since the posts must be formed of substantial material, such as metal, appropriately punched, bent and riveted, while the wire must be accurately formed to the required length. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a binder that will give satisfactory service while being comparatively inexpensive and simple to manufacture.

A further disadvantage of the above-described binder is that they are only suitable for binding sheets of one length. If the length of a bound sheet is substantially less than the distance between the posts, the sheet is not adequately restrained from movement. A subsidiary object of the invention is therefore to provide a binder that can be satisfactorily used to bind sheets having a range oflengths.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 7 According to the invention there is provided a binder com prising a foldable cover and spine structure having a pair of cover portions separated by a spine portion, support structure overlying the inner face ofsaid spine portion and affixed to the cover and spine structure so as to extend longitudinally of the spine portion, and a pair of mounting members mounted upon said support structure and movable thereon longitudinally of said spine portion, each said mounting member being provided with at least one slot extending transversely of the direction of movement ofthe mounting members.

To secure a folded sheet within the binder, both binder and sheet are opened and the fold of the sheet is placed so that ends thereof overlay the mounting members. The sheet is then secured to the mounting members by a pair of elongate U- shaped resilient clips, one leg of each clip being inserted between the appropriate mounting member and support member, preferably extending through one of said slots and the other leg being slid over the end of the sheet along the fold.

The invention may be better understood from the following description and drawings in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. I is a perspective view of a binder constructed in accordance with the invention,

FIG. 2 is a plan view of portion of the binder shown in FIG. I with part thereofshown in section,

FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view of another binder constructed in accordance with the invention,

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a clip for use with binders constructed in accordance with the invention,

FIG. 5 is a perspective view ofan alternative form ofclip,

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a further binder constructed in accordance with the invention,

FIG. 7 is a plan view ofthe binder ofFIG. 6.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring firstly to FIGS. 1 and 2, the binder 11 illustrated therein has a spine 12 of generally arcuate cross section and front and back covers 13 and 14 respectively. The spine and covers are of composite construction comprising cardboard pieces 16, 17 and 18 which are retained between a pair offlexible sheets of plastics material 19, 21 joined, as by welding, at the edges of the covers and along fold lines 22 and 23 separating the spine and covers. An elongated narrow web 24 extends longitudinally of the spine and defines web end portions 26 and 27. Web 24 is of composite construction comprising a heavy cardboard strip 28 of generally arcuatc cross section and a further strip 29 of sheet plastics material which is affixed, as by gluing, to the concave surface of cardboard strip 28. The width of cardboard strip 28 is substantially equal to that of the spine, while the width of the plastics strip is greater so as to form two flaplike extensions .31 and 33 at the sides of the web. The lengths of strips 28 and 29 are substantially the same and somewhat less than the length of the spine.

Web 24 is mounted in the binder so as to overlie the spine 12. This is accomplished by securing extensions 31 and 33 of strip 29 to respective covers adjacent fold lines 22 and 23. As mentioned above, the web 24 is slightly shorter than the spine 12, and is positioned so that each end portion 26, 27 is spaced a short distance from the adjacent end of the spine. The mounting of web 24 is such that it is generally parallel to, but spaced apart from, spine 12 over its whole length.

Folded sheets or magazines are secured within binder 11 by clipping at the fold line to web 24 by means of elongated U- shaped clips. A suitable clip 34 is illustrates in FIG. 4. It comprises a pair of arms 36, 37 which are generally parallel and connected together at one pair of adjacent ends by an intermediate clip portion 38. The free ends of portions 36 and 37 are outwardly bent as indicted by reference numerals 38 and 39. Portion 36 is straight, but portion 37 is ofcorrugated form. Clip 34 is formed from spring steel of substantially round cross section.

To secure a magazine within binder 11 by means ofclips 34, the binder is first opened and the magazine 41 laid over the binder so that its upper and lower edges are between end web portions 26 and 27 and with the center fold line of the magazine aligned in the direction ofthe web. Clips 34 are then fitted ove r end web portions 26 and 27 so as to extend along the center fold line of the magazine. Thus, the portions 36 of clips 34 are located within the gap between spine 12 and web 24 while the portions 37 thereof extend within the magazine.

The binder 42 shown in FIG. 3 comprises covers 13A and 14A and an intermediate spine 12A. The construction of the covers and spine is generally the same as that of the corresponding covers and spine of the binder 11 illustrated in FIGS. land 2, with the exception that spine 12A is flat rather than that ofthe arcuate form of spine 12. Binder 42 has a web 43 which is formed in the same manner as the web 28 in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2 and is secured to the covers by means of extensions 40, 45. Web 43 has a plurality of transverse slots 44 located towards each end portion thereof. Thus, magazines 46 and 47 which are of differing height, less than the distance between the opposite ends of web 44, can be bound in the manner illustrated by inserting clips 34 through the slots 44 to hold the magazines in the same manner as described above.

It should be noted that, for purposes of clarity, the distances of the points of connection of the web extensions 31, 33 (FIGS. land 2) and 40, 45 (FIG. 3) with the respective covers I3, 14 and 13A. 14A to the fold lines (22, and 23 in FIG. 2) between the covers and spines are exaggerated in the drawings. In practice, the connection of the web extensions to the covers is made as close as possible to the fold lines to permit easy opening of the covers without unduly stretching the web.

In the embodiment of FIGS. 6 and 7, the binder 51 has a pair ofcovers 13B, 14B and a spine 128. The constructions of these covers and spine follows that ol' the covers 13 and I4 and spine 12 previously described. Spine 128 carries elongate metal-mounting plate 52 which extends longitudinally thereof. As best seen from FIG. 7, plate 52 is of generally channel shaped cross section having an intermediate longitudinally extending portion 53 and a pair of said 54 and 56. Intermediate portion 53 is of arcuate cross section. The outer marginal edges of flanges 54 and 56 are outwardly bent to from longitudinally extending rails 57 and 58. Plate 52 is secured to the spine 128 by rivets 59 which extend through portion 53.

The mounting web is this embodiment is in the form of a pair of metal-mounting members 61, 63. The members 61 and 63 are of like construction being bent from metal strip. Each comprises a mounting portion 64 and a pair of marginal rail gripping portions 66 and 67 extending therefrom. Portions 64 each have a plurality of laterally extending slots 62. The portions 66 an d67 are reversely bent and rails 57 and 58 of plate 52 are gripped between these and the associated mounting portion 64. The lateral spacing between gripping portions 66 and 67, of members 61 and 63, is arranged to be somewhat less than the lateral width of support plate 52 so that when members 61 and 63 are mounted upon the plate 52 the flanges 54 and 56 thereof are inwardly sprung so that there is frictional resistance to sliding movement of members 61. 63 along the rails. Members 61 and 63 may thus be slidably moved along the support 52. When magazines 50, 55 are attached to members by means of clips 34, tendency of the members to slide when the binder is placed upright, and under the influence of the weight of the magazines, is resisted. The binder 51 permits binding of magazines having a very wide variety of size since the members 61 and 63 may be positioned to accommodate a wide variety of sizes.

The clip 34 which has been described is convenient in use and relatively easy to manufacture. However it is possible that this clip will be insufficiently strong to permit effective binding of heavy magazines. A more rigid form of clip 71 is illustrated in FIG. 5. It is formed by stamping from flat spring steel or like material and is of generally U-shaped configuration having a pair of arm portions 76, 77. Portion 76 is twisted out of the plane of the strip material so as to extend at right angles thereto. In use, the portion 76 extends behind the web and portion 77 within the sheets to be bound. The bent portion 76 serves to align the clip so that portion 77 always extends directly outwardly from the web.

Although the mounting plate 52 is shown as extending substantially along the length of the spine 12B, it is possible, of course, to replace this by two separate plates located one towards each end ofthe spine.

It has been found that binders manufactured according to the invention can be used to securely bind quite heavy material, for example, a number of magazines. Nevertheless, because of the simple construction these binders are comparatively inexpensive to manufacture.

It will be appreciated that the particular constructions have been advanced by way of example only, and many modifications may be made thereto. Particularly, it should be noted that the manner of construction of the cover and spine structures illustrated forms no part of the present invention, and constructions other than those described may be employed. For example structures of guided cardboard and cloth, or simply folded cardboard may be used. Again, in order to better illustrate the general applicability of the invention, structures having both flat and arcuate spines have been illustrated. It should be understood that each of the described web structures is applicable to binders having either flat or arcuate spines.

The above, and other modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention defined in the appended claims.

lclaim:

1. A binder comprising a foldable cover and spine structure having a pair of cover portions separated by a spine portion, support structure overlying the inner face of said spine portion and affixed to the cover and spine structure so as to extend longitudinally of the spine portion, and a pair of mounting members each mounted upon said support structure and movable thereon longitudinally of said spine portion so as to vary the spacing therebetween, each said mounting member being provided with at least one slot extending transversely of the direction of movement of the mounting members.

2. A binder as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support structure is secured directly to the spine portion.

3. A binder as claimed in claim 2 wherein the support structure comprises a support member extending substantially the full length of said spine portion, the longitudinal marginal edges of said support member defining a pair of longitudinal support rails, each mounting member having inwardly bent side edges which grip said rails to provide frictional resistance to sliding movement of the mounting members along the length of the rails.

4. A binder as claimed in claim 3 wherein said marginal edges of said support member are resiliently deformable towards each other and said longitudinal marginal edges resiliently bear against inside faces of said side edges of said mounting members to provide said frictional resistance. 

1. A binder comprising a foldable cover and spine structure having a pair of cover portions separated by a spine portion, support structure overlying the inner face of said spine portion and affixed to the cover and spine structure so as to extend longitudinally of the spine portion, and a pair of mounting members each mounted upon said support structure and movable thereon longitudinally of said spine portion so as to vary the spacing therebetween, each said mounting member being provided with at least one slot extending transversely of the direction of movement of the mounting members.
 2. A binder as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support structure is secured directly to the spine portion.
 3. A binder as claimed in claim 2 wherein the support structure comprises a support member extending substantially the full length of said spine portion, the longitudinal marginal edges of said support member defining a pair of longitudinal support rails, each mounting member having inwardly bent side edges which grip said rails to provide frictional resistance to sliding movement of the mounting members along the length of the rails.
 4. A binder as claimed in claim 3 wherein said marginal edges of said support member are resiliently deformable towards each other and said longitudinal marginal edges resiliently bear against inside faces of said side edges of said mounting members to provide said frictional resistance. 